I'm Ranked 51 Of 149 FT Drivers For Safety!

Our moderators are always talking about how this is a performance based business, and these companies have spreadsheets tracking nearly every detail about the drivers. Theyre always trying to be as cost efficient as possible and cut down on costs whether its unsafe driving or wasting fuel idling. Here is an example of how my company does it.

With our new ELD system we now can view how we rank compared to other drivers in safety. For this month I'm ranked 51 of 149 full-time drivers. Hopefully next month I can rank even higher. My safety score is 100 (highest possible). To get our rank they look at several factors. For the last 30 days I drove 7443 miles, with 139 hours and 24 minutes on the drive line. I believe only 1 of those weeks were 5 day work weeks the rest were 4 day. Not bad for a "local" driver, in reality I'm probably more super regional due to our farthest route only taking us 325 miles away then come back unless theres a backhaul thrown on. Most days I'm around 400-500 miles, tomorrow will be about 610. They also look at stability events, hard brakes and crashes all of us which I had 0. What dragged my rating down was I had a little over 19 minutes speeding for the month, which is anything over 4 mph over the limit. That time is all from coming down hills, I dont intentionally speed. I definitely must keep an eye on that to rank higher. In a separate program, we're also ranked by idle time. I'm about middle of the pack for that with around 13%. It got quite in depth showing how much time, gallons of fuel were wasted idling, how many total gallons used for the week and the cost for idling and total. My idle time has added up from sitting at backhauls or taking breaks, with it being cold I've idled to stay warm. Not only are we always being evaluated with turning miles and making appointments, but there are several things you're being judged on you may not be aware of. The goal is to be the best at ALL the things they're looking at.

Wow!! Idling the truck in winter to stay warm goes against you, thats seems unfair, I would have thought they would account for extra idle time in winter. Could you get a small electric space heater for the truck to cut down the idle time??

Wow!! Idling the truck in winter to stay warm goes against you, thats seems unfair, I would have thought they would account for extra idle time in winter. Could you get a small electric space heater for the truck to cut down the idle time??

They'll talk to people who they feel are idling excessively. In my job I have to unload my truck at stores. They expect the truck shut off when we're unloading and not in the truck but are ok with doing what we need to in order to stay warm or cool depending on the season. They aren't going to fire someone over idling, but since we're an "employee owned" company they're trying to show exactly how much money we're throwing away that could have been added to our quarterly bonus. OTR trucks are set up different than my daycab is, they have ways of keeping it cool or warm that my daycab does not. Hopefully our OTR drivers can elaborate on keeping the truck at a comfortable temp without idling excessively.

Most trucks have a bunk heater so there’s no need to idle.

Wow!! Idling the truck in winter to stay warm goes against you, thats seems unfair, I would have thought they would account for extra idle time in winter. Could you get a small electric space heater for the truck to cut down the idle time??

Congratulations! Pretty impressive for being there such a short time.

Sounds similar to what we call ROI score, Which measures idle, rpms and speed.

Most trucks have a bunk heater so there’s no need to idle.

Those of us living the day cab life do not have one. We are not allowed to idle at all unless they give us permission which they usually do not do unless it is extremely cold and they keep they fleet idling

Congrats brother that's something to be proud of.

Great job, Rob!

I'm wondering if your RR crossing gate incursion brought your score down any?

Thanks guys, but I'd much rather be in the top 10 or better so I'll have to pay more attention to my speed coming downhills in particular and try to get there.

I'm wondering if your RR crossing gate incursion brought your score down any?

I dont think it did, I talked to our safety guy about the incident and that's been about it. Since there was no accident report or damage claim there hasn't been much talk about it. I'm sure if my citation doesnt get tossed out that may change things as the charge is listed under careless or reckless driving I cant remember which. My lawyer reached out to the prosecutor last week but the prosecutor was out of the office. She was hopeful we'd hear something tomorrow (monday).

My fingers are crossed for you.

Rob, that's awesome!

I occasionally had to "fight" (disagree gently") with last trainer (2 weeks home daily) over heat. He is convinced the CNG truck uses considerably more fuel running the heat when driving! Maybe... not sure how... He doesn't get a fuel bonus but we came pretty close to running out on one run!

One trick I did was crank the heat when running at stops. He was usually outside and I was backing (slowly, badly) with driver's window fully down and passenger about 1/2. This made it comfortable during that process, warm for him upon return and helped with sitting time. I was surprised he didn't know visor-down windshield warming trick! Helps with defrost but also warms the glass so it radiates heat, not cold.

Remember... warm surfaces hold and radiate heat. Don't just warm the air... warm the vehicle!

Maybe a small portable inverter and ceramic heater would work - possibly even using a portable battery pack to power it (like my Costco $100 charger/jump box/inverter/compressor/USB out device). FYI... this particular device seems to take a few days to fully charge and does not charge from 12-volt DC. Some do!

Be safe!